


I'll Catch a Galaxy for you

by StarAlopex



Category: Final Fantasy XIV
Genre: Angst, Blood and Gore, Blood and Injury, Bozja Southern Front, F/M, Named Warrior of Light (Final Fantasy XIV), Nightmares, No Spoilers for Bozja though, Original Character(s)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-10
Updated: 2020-12-28
Packaged: 2021-03-08 23:21:40
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,712
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27484933
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/StarAlopex/pseuds/StarAlopex
Summary: The pretty songs the Wandering Minstrel sings do not accurately compare to the horrors of war.
Relationships: Warrior of Light (Final Fantasy XIV)/Original Character(s)
Kudos: 2





	1. Malefic

**Author's Note:**

> 100% self-indulgent OC "what-if" theory crafting nonsense
> 
> Also written mostly from my phone, so will fix as I spot errors.

The pretty songs the Wandering Minstrel sings do not accurately compare to the horrors of war.

Sayuki has been summoned to the Bozja Southern Front. Today has been less focused about the fighting and she is currently on a personal mission: looking for survivors. A sharp high pitch whistle 500 yalms north draws her attention. Jhun'a found someone. She quickly claps to get the attention of the chocobo assigned to her. She doubts she’ll ever get used to riding the giant birds, but it’s faster and more efficient than her sprinting all over the battlefield.

Jhun'a is kneeling next to a body when she skids to a halt next to him. She pulls out her star globe and it starts spinning immediately. She smiles at the good fortune and playful taps her tail against Jhun’a’s forearm. “Thanks,” she says as she begins to focus on the healing aether of the stars. Jhun’a shrugs and stands to keep guard while she works her magic. He’s been slightly more open since their heart to heart talk, but his soldier instincts take over on the battlefield and she can’t fault him for it. She starts to spell weave as he uses a linkshell to alert the recovery unit to their location.

\---

It’s not like the stories or the songs sung after the war is ended. There is no warning.

They are walking next to each other, passing the orphaned ruins, and Sayuki is making idle chit chat to fill the silence. Jhun’a’s ears are flicking in a thousand directions and she thinks maybe she should stop. but the tension is too high. They haven’t seen any magitek in their little corner of Hell all morning and it’s starting to become out of the norm.

There is still no sound when Jhun’a whips around and shoves her to the ground. She chokes on a startled yelp and lands flat on her back. There’s a slightly different whistling sound for a brief second- something slicing through the air and Jhun’a makes a punched out sound. He stumbles- just once and softly folds to his knees on the dusty ground. His lance clatters beside him.

Sayuki stares, still gasping for the lost breath, not yet comprehending what has transpired. Then suddenly the chocobo screeches, Jhun’a gurgles on blood and the adrenaline kicks in.

“Jhun’a!” she screams, scrambling across the dirt to him. She summons her knowledge of conjuration magic and slams her hands into the dirt next to him, erecting stone walls for protection. He’s still on his knees struggling, stubbornly attempting to stand.

“No, no, no, stop,” she stutters as she fumbles with the buttons to his vest, the dark fabric almost hiding the spread of his blood.

A shot. _Jhun’a took a shot meant for her._ His life force is rapidly pulsing out and Sayuki will have fresh nightmares of the sound of him choking on his own blood. She swallows against the desperation clawing up her throat and exhales a shaky breath. His hands raise and cling with strength he shouldn’t have to the front of her coat. He’s trying to talk, but it’s only sickly wet noises.

“J-just stay still Jhun’a.” The hole in his chest is terrifyingly high and she reaches for every scrap of knowledge about anatomy her family ever impressed upon her.

She sets on hand above the hole to gauge the damage. A quick pulse of aether gives her a brief overview and Jhun'a's head falls to her shoulder with a whine. The skin is torn open on both sides, a clean hole through and through. The muscles flex, trying to contract as the nerve endings fire off mixed signals. “Come on, come on,” she whispers mostly to herself, forcing her aether deeper to identify the worst of the damage. The bones are broken, the jagged edges cutting everything they touch-

His heart, valve damaged, valiantly attempting to pump blood.

She stops her questing aether, the dire situation numbing her response.

“How b-bad is… it Sa-yuki?” Jhun’a spits out and she is thrown back to when he asked in Sohm Al. Only that time he wasn’t actively dying in her lap. He’s starting to shiver and sweat his breaking out on his face.

The calmness of knowing what she must do settles in. “Just bear with me. I won’t let you die.” She grabs the hands clinging to her coat and forces him to lie down as gently as she can.

He hums, no energy left for a response.

She takes a steadying breath and remembers what Jannequinard taught her so many years ago. Astral Stasis. A last resort to save a life and turn to fates to your side.

She stands and takes a minute to steady herself before giving over to opening the seventh heaven. All is still for a half-second, just long enough for her to think this won’t work, before the crushing flood of power almost makes her fall back down. Sayuki grits her teeth. _I am the_ _damned_ _Warrior of Light. I can save one life!_ The ground trembles and gravity starts to give. She floats for just second before guiding her star globe above her head to channel the blue-white energy swirling around them. The power is slick and oily, trying to escape her fingertips but she refuses to let it go. She pours more of herself into channeling and her cards raise around her, glowing. Something pops painfully behind her left eye, but she ignores it and calls down even more benefic magic. The heavens are open, healing aether is flooding out and it’s too late to back out now. Time freezes before an explosion of constellations erupt and the stone walls she raised are shatter like glass. Her only hope is the guards posted at Camp Steva see this nonsense and have the good sense to send someone to see what happened.

Her globe falls back gently to her waiting hands, but Sayuki barely has the strength to grasp it. The remaining shower of celestial benediction twinkles before fading, but Jhun'a's face is still so pale, his lips bloodless. She can’t even tell if he’s breathing against the blackness swimming in her vision. She can’t tell if she made a damn difference or just made them all targets. She coughs, the smell of ozone overwhelming and lets the darkness overtake her.


	2. Combust

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alternate Chapter Title: Gratuitous Use of Hyphens

It’s the empty expanse of the Bozja Southern Front. Her vision is fritzing and blurring around the edges, much like when the Echo takes hold.

Three heartbeats pass before there’s a wet gasp behind her. Except it’s not quite a breath. More like the sound someone would make if they were trying to breathe but couldn’t. More like if someone was attempting to breathe but can’t because their ribs pierced their lungs and their throat was full of blood.

Sayuki turns.

The top right half of Jhun’a’s skull is missing, the edges jagged and stark white against his skin. Blood flows from his mouth and the bullet holes in his chest. His bangs are matted and clumped together in the place his right eye is supposed to be.

“Not good enough,” he chokes out, which shouldn’t be possible from the amount of blood in his mouth. “Never _been_ good enough- tell you what Sayuki, let me give you a piece of my mind.”

He reaches up and touches the tips of his fingers to the exposed meat of his-

Sayuki retches and turns on her heel, slipping in… in something and-

There’s too many dead bodies, there’s too much blood on the ground. Ysale lays broken and crumpled, Haurchefant’s hand is outstretched towards her, Moenbryda, Wildred, Conrad and too many more all piled on top of each other.

Jhun’a collapses against her back and slings his arms around her shoulders as she staggers. He forces her to turn and face him and Sayuki struggles against his grip. They end up falling into the corpse pile and Jhun'a looms over her. The blood is so thick and cold; there’s chunks of flesh and tissue and gray matter under his nails. He sets his knees on either side of her hips and twists his fingers up into her hair to force her to look into his remaining eye.

“They’re all dead,” he rasps, spitting liquid onto her face. He takes another forsaken breath and coughs once; a dark red blood clot drips down his chin and she turns in time for it to land on her cheek. Haurchefant's glassy eyes stare accusingly at her, but Jhun'a forces her to look back at his disfigured face. “Every. Fucking. One. Everyone you love is dying Sayuki.”

“I’m sorry,” she spits out, writhing and shoving at him, but Jhun’a doesn’t let go or move. The fuzzy echo vision pulses again, seemingly angry with her too so she closes her eyes. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m-”

“Do you want my heart too?” He snarls, shaking her head with wet fingers. He shifts one hand to pin down her left shoulder so she opens her eyes again. He’s grasping at his chest with the other, fingers already digging into the holes, causing more liquid to cascade down. “You’re so selfish.”

She fights his hold again, but another rough shake makes the light shift. The edges shudder again and the fingers on her face are soft and-

It’s a blanket. She’s awake and covered in cloths. It’s a bed, she’s on a bed, and the room is dark. She’s curled up in a ball and the sheets cling to her with sweat. Sayuki jerks to get out of them- they remind her of too much blood and other liquids at the moment- and sits on the edge of the bed. From what she can tell, she’s back in the Rising Stones. But Sayuki is the only one occupying a bed, and she swallows against the panic pooling in her stomach. Jhun’a isn’t here, but someone had to get her from Bozja to here. She vaguely wonders how many scions saw her and how to explain she’s fine, she’ll be fine, the Warrior of Light is always _fine_.

Voices filter in from the main room, but she can’t discern the words. “ _Not good enough_ ,” Jhun’a repeats in her head instead.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Someday I'll write a happy chapter


End file.
